Torture-slaying trial, Day 6: Prosecutor grilled about dealings with Coleman

KNOXVILLE - A federal prosecutor today spent nearly three hours on the witness stand in Knox County Criminal Court as he was pressed to explain why torture-slayings suspect Vanessa Coleman was initially offered immunity.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jennings told jurors in Coleman's trial there was no proof Coleman "physically participated" in the crimes committed against slaying victims Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, at the time an immunity offer was drafted a week after the January 2007 killings.

He said the offer was drafted in anticipation that Coleman would invoke her right against self-incrimination before a federal grand jury considering the federal offense of carjacking in the case. She didn't, and the deal was never struck, he said.

However, Jennings said he didn't believe Coleman's account of the crimes.

"She lied under oath," he said. "Immunity was off the table."

Although summoned by Coleman's defense team, Jennings quickly proved key to state prosecutors trying to prove Coleman is criminally responsible for the crimes.

"I don't know how anyone in that house wouldn't know what was going on," he said. "That's a tiny house. (Christian) was raped by more than one person in that house."

Jennings said he also did not believe Coleman's claim she never saw Newsom in the Chipman Street house where the couple was taken after being abducted. He said Coleman's boyfriend, convicted killer Letalvis Cobbins, admitted Newsom was led into the house along with Christian.

Earlier in the day, the state wrapped up its case, presenting forensic testimony from Knox County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan.

Autopsy photos were so gruesome a spectator passed out. A similar reaction came during convicted ringleader Lemaricus Davidson's trial last year.

Mileusnic-Polchan told jurors Newsom was raped at least an hour before his death in January 2007. He was shot three times and his body set on fire, she said.

Christian was repeatedly raped over several hours before she was stuffed alive into a trash can, where she suffocated, she said.